Thursday, 1 December 2011

Hello Elllo!

Assalamualaikum and Hi to all.

In this entry, I would like to share a website that can be used for listening activity. It is called Elllo. This website offers thousands of listening materials either audio clips or video clips uploaded by people all around the world such as England, United States of America, China, Vietnam and a lot more. It provides numerous activities that the students can benefit from such as vocabulary, information gap, quizzes, comprehension as well as games. The clips in this website are clustered into five different sections which are News, Views, Games, Videos, and Mixer and users will be able to search the clips through those sections. However, because there are massive number of clips as well as their functions, the organization of this website seems a bit problematic that it makes the users difficult to search their favourite clips. Nonetheless, this website is still a powerful tool because it allows people to upload their materials based on any topic that they like which is very good because it promotes personalization. This means that people can talk about whatever topic that they like and appeal to them and then upload it onto the website.So the topic will be more authentic because the speaker speaks based on his or her personal experience.

Listen and Learn the language!

Apart from listening to the clips, there a lot of activities that come together with the materials which help the students in language learning. There are vocabulary practises as well as comprehension exercises that assist learners in understanding the materials and improve their language. One particular thing that I like about vocabulary practise is it does not only say the word and gives definition, like most of the website do, but also demonstrate on how to use it in a suitable context. I found this very helpful because sometimes you may know the definition and how to pronounce certain words but it is different when putting them into context. This is very helpful for students because they will be able to know how to use the words in their writing. Apart from that, there is also transcription of the clips which the students can refer to while they are listening. This is also important for them to familiarise with the language.

Have a glance at the page!

The following pictures are taken under Video section.

More than one thousand clips to choose from!

Good quality of video.

Video quizzes.

Lesson relating to the video.

Advantages of this website.

1. There are various topic to choose from. Students will be able to choose clips based on any topics that they prefer.
2, Audio clips can be downloaded into a playlist available in the website or even into the computer which is very convenient and easy.
3. The handout can also be downloaded or printed.
4. variety of English accents. This is because there are more that one thousand people of different countries speaking and the students will be able to hear variety of accents which will help them in the future context. For example if they further their study in a foreign country where there are multicultural students speaking the language.
5. Develop autonomous learning; students will be able to learn on their own.
6. Promote multiple intelligence. This is because the students are not only limited to the listening skills but also exposed to visual and writing.
7. Promote Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Students will be able to learn the language through a particular content such as sports or culture.

Disadvantages of the website.

1. There are too many advertisements which may be confusing. Users sometimes may find it difficult to differentiate between content and advertisement. It will definitely be disturbing if we accidently click at the advertisement.
2. The video cannot be downloaded. The video clips are available for online streaming only and they cannot be downloaded.

I hardly found any other disadvantages to this website as I personally like this tool very much and I believe that it will be a great tool for language learning.